IC Technology & Surveillance — 2026-05-05

NSA Gains Exclusive Government Access to Anthropic Mythos Under Project Glasswing as EU Demands Blocked

Axios reported, as cited by TechCrunch on April 20, that the NSA is using Mythos Preview, Anthropic's cybersecurity-focused model withheld from public release, primarily for scanning environments for exploitable vulnerabilities. Anthropic has limited Mythos to roughly 40 organizations, publicly naming only a dozen; the NSA appears to be among the undisclosed recipients. The UK's AI Security Institute separately confirmed its own Mythos access. The Next Web reported on May 3 that European finance ministers are demanding access to the model following claims that Anthropic's system has identified zero-day vulnerabilities across major systems.

Analysis
NSA's operational use of Anthropic's Mythos Preview for vulnerability scanning (per Axios, relayed by secondary outlets without independent verification of access terms) gives U.S. signals intelligence a structural advantage over programs lacking equivalent access. Anthropic has limited the model to roughly 40 organizations, publicly naming fewer than a third, a posture prioritizing controlled government partnership. EU finance ministers' demands carry no legal force under existing U.S. export frameworks, and the NSA relationship creates structural incentives against any expansion. The ministerial pressure more plausibly reflects transatlantic tech-regulation leverage than a genuine operational security requirement. NSA likely retains exclusive U.S. government access under Project Glasswing for at least 90 days, with no binding pathway available to European governments within that window.

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Euro finance ministers demand Mythos access as Anthropics AI finds zero-days in every major system - The Next Web